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Now I have absolutely NO idea why this card has been banned from play. Sure it's effect that lets you draw a card every time your opponent special summons is powerful to the point where it should be limited, but why banned?

First off there are multiple ways to stop it, Tri-Gate Wizard, Debunk, Solemn Strike, Banisher of the Radiance, etc.

Second, it can help people turn a duel around, but as I said a SPYRAL player I once beat with it, "You chose to special your monsters, even at the cost of letting me draw cards. The fact that you lost is your own fault. If you hadn't chosen to special summon, you would've been able to win."

So in other words, it doesn't force your opponent to special summon, it forces them to RECONSIDER special summoning. Now obviously it can stop mass summonings, but THAT'S THE POINT. It's the best way to keep OP decks like Pendulum Magicians in check. It's supposed to help give each player a chance to win.

So with that being the case, why on earth does Maxx "C" need to be banned rather than limited?

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    it was banned to push the sales of spam special summoning decks like sypral, world chalice and magicians
    – WhatsThePoint
    Commented Mar 7, 2018 at 13:18
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    Dumb question: Are banlist questions by default about the TCG and not OCG? (Since Maxx "C" is unlimited in OCG)
    – BCLC
    Commented Apr 2, 2018 at 15:27

2 Answers 2

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Well, surely Konami had their own reasons for doing so (my impression is that this was done to favor newer decks that special summon more, or perhaps many decks were abusing it) but I think you already found one of the main reasons why:

it can help people turn a duel around

Indeed Maxx-c can turn a duel around, specially when used on early/mid game when it is most disruptive.

Like you said, when you see your opponent activate a Maxx-c you are faced with a difficult choice: (1) either keep summoning to ensure building your game and strategy, but give your opponent a huge hand advantage, or (2) stop summoning to prevent giving your opponent hand advantage, but basically delay your strategy a whole turn by refraining from finishing your combo.

As you can see this is a dire choice, as in both scenarios you have few or nothing to win, hence why this card could have been banned.

Now, as you experienced, Maxx-c is less effective on late game. This is because on that moment it doesn't matter anymore if you give your opponent hand advantage, as chances are that if you successfully carry out your combo you will win right there. In these situations it is usually better to ignore Maxx-c, summon and ensure your victory that turn.

So, there probably are other reasons for Konami to ban this card, but in my experience Maxx-c has always been a powerful card since it came up; with the current format it has become even more powerful.

You say that this card could "easily" be countered (although to be honest there aren't that much cards to do so, and the ones that do are really specific, like Debunk), but that would force players to include such counters on their main or side decks, possibly affecting their game strategy. So restricting or banning it sounds reasonable to me.

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  • Well like I said there are other ways to stop it. Different Dimension Ground, Tri-gate Wizard, Solemn Strike (That wouldn't ruin a strategy, most archetypes I've seen have at least one in their deck), Debunk, Protector of the Sanctuary, Majesty's Fiend, Droll & Lock Bird, I could go on. Of course it presents you with a choice, but as you pointed out, if you don't draw it early in the game, it's not gonna help much if your opponent already has their field set. So since that's the case, I only see reason to limit it, not ban. Especially since it's more about speed now than power in yugioh.
    – The rational duelist
    Commented Feb 21, 2018 at 20:35
  • Plus if it goes against decks that are centered around normal or tribute summoning like Gravekeepers or Monarchs then it's effect is 99% useless cause you won't get much from those decks. Also, If someone went against my protector of the sanctuary, it won't work since Protector of the Sanctuary forbids the opponent from drawing outside the draw phase. I can think of lots of ways to easily shut down Maxx "C".
    – The rational duelist
    Commented Feb 21, 2018 at 20:43
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    @Therationalduelist maybe it's so, but surely there are other internal reasons for banning it. The fact that one card has one or several counter cards does not mean that it should be restricted or not. The main things to consider when banning cards are if it's being abused, if it has potential of being abused, or when Trollnami prints some OP card. To be honest, Gravekeepers are good (pretty stable deck, with several locks), but not the kind of deck many competitive players use now. With the advent of many cards that can summon faster, Maxx C became more powerful than "tolerated", thus the ban
    – DarkCygnus
    Commented Feb 21, 2018 at 20:54
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    @BCLC well TCG and OCG both have their lists each. Unless OP says something about OCG it is safe to assume it's TCG... and also, because its Maxx C we're talking about we can conclude it is TCG indeed... OCG is only playable is, well, you live in Japan or happen to have such cards, in the rest of the world the TCG is the one sold, discussed,played, etc. :)
    – DarkCygnus
    Commented Apr 2, 2018 at 16:42
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    @BCLC sleepy Stacking is a dangerous and sometimes fun thing to do.. perhaps the next day you will have better ideas (although your "dumb" question was relevant, though)
    – DarkCygnus
    Commented Apr 2, 2018 at 19:04
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Originally the card was at 3 but then players started complaining about it being annoying to deal with as when their opponents use it on them, it's basically asking them to choose between:

  1. a bad decision: ending their turn on a wide open board for their opponent to otk them next turn
  2. a worse decision ignoring the maxx c and letting their opponent draw into all their combo pieces as well as the cards needed to break whatever board you manage to make

This essentially guarantees that you will lose no matter what.

Konami tried first to hit the card to 2 but then it didn't make much of a difference as most players only ran 2 maxx c anyways. Konami then tried limiting it to 1 which turned the game from a game of being the better player or having the better deck into a game of who manages to get to their maxx c first.

Obviously this beats the purpose of the game altogether if the winner is almost always decided by whoever manages to draw into a certain card first regardless of what deck(s) they were playing. Thus the card can't remain at 3, 2, or 1, and has to be banned.

I personally see this card as one of those cards that should either be unlimited so that both players have a reasonable chance of getting it or outright banned where neither players have access to it because of how huge of a difference it makes but we should just be happy that Konami has given us cards like ash blossom and infinite impermanence which can interrupt our opponent's plays on turn 0 without creating such an all or nothing situation like maxx c does.

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